{"id":8005,"date":"2025-04-21T17:38:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T22:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/?p=8005"},"modified":"2025-04-22T14:51:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T19:51:48","slug":"clippings-april-21st-2025-tsp-media-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2025\/04\/21\/clippings-april-21st-2025-tsp-media-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippings | April 21st, 2025 | TSP Media Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/span>\"\"
\n
<\/span>\"\"
\n

Musa al-Gharbi<\/a> (Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University) wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post<\/em><\/a> on the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education. Al-Gharbi argues that the administration undermined its own efforts after Columbia University complied with its directives: \u201c[I]t responded to Columbia\u2019s show of weakness by turning the screws further [… and] ratcheted up demands on other universities as well.\u201d This shows other universities that quick compliance is not rewarded, giving them little choice but to fight back. \u201cAnd now that Harvard has chosen the path of resistance, other institutions will probably follow its lead.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Musa al-Gharbi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>\"\"
\n
<\/span>\"\"
\n

The Atlantic<\/em><\/a> ran a story discussing how America is in a phase of \u201cgrandparenthood,\u201d in which grandparents play a significant role in raising their grandchildren. The article featured research from Madonna Harrington Meyer<\/a> (Professor of Sociology at Syracuse University), describing how some grandparents want to be involved in their grandchildren\u2019s lives, but are attempting to set boundaries on that involvement. They may use strategies such as committing to help on certain days (\u201cI\u2019m a Wednesday grandma.\u201d) or committing to \u201cfun time.\u201d However, boundary setting often fails, and grandparents take on a significant parenting workload. Harrington Meyer also describes how some grandparents delay retirement or take on debt to financially support their grandchildren.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Madonna Harrington Meyer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>\"\"
\n
<\/span>\"\"
\n

Near the end of 2024, Walmart released a handbag similar to the luxury Herm\u00e8s Birkin bag. Aarushi Bhandari<\/a> (Assistant Professor of Sociology at Davidson College) and Parul Bhandari<\/a> (Director of Studies in Sociology University of Cambridge) appeared on The Conversation Weekly<\/em><\/a> podcast to discuss conspicuous consumption and the Birkin bag as a cultural symbol. \u201cYou need to have a record of spending tens of thousands of dollars even before you\u2019re offered to buy one. But spending that money doesn\u2019t automatically mean you get a bag,\u201d Aarushi Bhandari explained. \u201cYou have to develop a relationship with a sales associate at a particular Herm\u00e8s store and the sales associate really gets to decide, if there\u2019s availability, whether or not you get offered a bag.\u201d Parul Bhandari described how owning a Birkin bag is a \u201cticket of entry into the global elite\u201d and\u2013for many women\u2013a way to display their husband\u2019s affection: \u201c\u200aNot only from the point of view of money, because obviously this bag is extremely expensive, but also because it is difficult to procure.\u201d The bag becomes a symbol of both wealth and effort within a marriage. Aarushi Bhandari became fascinated with responses to the \u201cWirkin\u201d (Walmart Birkin) bag. Many online commenters critiqued spending thousands on handbags and praised the Wirkin as an accessible alternative. Bhandari sees this as an example of anti-elitism.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Aarushi Bhandari<\/a> and Parul Bhandari<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>\"\"
\n
<\/span>\"\"
\n

The New York Times<\/em><\/a> ran a story on how most people go to civil court (for example, in family law, housing, or debt cases) without legal representation. \u201cCourts were not designed for people,\u201d Rebecca Sandefur<\/a> (Professor of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University) commented. \u201cThe processes that you have to navigate to use [the court system] were implemented for a very narrow part of the population that invented them and speaks in Latin and knows what pleading is.\u201d The article cited Sandefur\u2019s research showing that having a lawyer increases odds of success in civil court and that many people with problems they could address in court often don\u2019t make use of the legal system.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rebecca Sandefur<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>\"\"
\n
<\/span>\"\"
\n

\u201cIn every relationship, there\u2019s one person who loads the dishwasher like a Scandinavian architect, and one who loads it like a raccoon on meth.\u201d In an article for the Atlantic<\/em><\/a>, Ellen Cushing explores this common sentiment and why there are so many conflicts over how to properly load the dishwasher. Michelle Janning<\/a> (Professor of Sociology at Whitman College) commented that \u201cour homes and our home possessions and what meaning we ascribe to them is one of the most personal things we can experience.\u201d Our homes are a sacred place and a representation of ourselves\u2013this extends to the technologies within our homes. \u201cThe strong opinions associated with how to [load the dishwasher] could be people trying to retain some semblance of control in a world where technological devices are doing things so much for us,\u201d Janning commented. \u201cI do wonder if there\u2019s a little bit of fear of losing the humanity associated with our domestic lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Michelle Janning<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musa al-Gharbi Madonna Harrington Meyer Aarushi Bhandari and Parul Bhandari Rebecca Sandefur Michelle Janning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2217,"featured_media":8010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,15,33,85],"tags":[117805,116349,117823,117808,117802,117799,117814,117809,4307,117791,117806,117811,117831,117820,1522,117793,117824,117827,117825,17228,117821,117796,117812,117792,117801,117810,117794,117078,78,117830,117828,117822,117798,117816,117819,117817,117804,117795,117826,117154,117800,117807,117815,117797,117818,117829,117832,117405,117790,117813,117803],"class_list":["post-8005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-culture","category-health","category-politics","tag-aarushi-bhandari","tag-academic-freedom","tag-access-to-justice","tag-anti-elitism","tag-birkin-bag","tag-caregiving-grandparents","tag-civil-courts","tag-class-symbolism","tag-columbia-university","tag-compliance-vs-resistance","tag-conspicuous-consumption","tag-consumer-culture","tag-control-in-domestic-spaces","tag-court-reform","tag-cultural-capital","tag-culture-wars","tag-dishwasher-debates","tag-domestic-technology","tag-ellen-cushing","tag-emotional-labor","tag-family-law","tag-family-support","tag-fashion-and-inequality","tag-federal-overreach","tag-financial-strain","tag-global-elite","tag-grandparenting","tag-harvard-university","tag-higher-education","tag-home-and-identity","tag-household-conflict","tag-housing-court","tag-intergenerational-households","tag-legal-access","tag-legal-inequality","tag-legal-representation","tag-luxury-branding","tag-madonna-harrington-meyer","tag-michelle-janning","tag-musa-al-gharbi","tag-parenting-boundaries","tag-parul-bhandari","tag-rebecca-sandefur","tag-retirement-delay","tag-self-representation","tag-sociology-of-everyday-life","tag-symbolic-objects","tag-trump-administration","tag-university-resistance","tag-walmart","tag-wirkin-bag"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/files\/2025\/04\/pexels-olly-3768140-1-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8019,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8005\/revisions\/8019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}